Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Edwards for that supplementary question. Workforce participation rates are very important for our economic growth into the future. Falling workforce participation rates mean lower productivity, which means less economic growth. We want to strengthen economic growth, which is why we have to convince more Australians to join the workforce and which is why we have to convince more older Australians to stay in the workforce longer. That is of course why, from opposition, we supported Labor's initiative in government to increase the pension age to 67 by 1 July 2023. And that is why, in government, we propose to extend that same trajectory which Labor started, with our support, to increase the pension age to 70 years of age—not by tomorrow, not by next week but by 1 July 2035—as part of an orderly transition into a future where people can expect to live in excess of 90 years of age.